SAN FRANCISCO--MIPS Technologies Inc. has welcomed Google Inc.’s release of a native development kit (NDK) for Android which supports the MIPS architecture, allowing developers to code for MIPS-based Android devices.

Over the past year, MIPS has been pushing hard to break into the Android space, with its customers using the Android platform for a plethora of cheaper CE devices, like the $99 tablets featured at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

With Release 8 of the Android NDK now available directly from Google, the firm says Android apps can be much more easily ported to MIPS-based devices, without having to compromise on performance.

The NDK also includes all the required tools, system headers, libraries and debugging support for MIPS.

Gideon Intrater, vice president of marketing at MIPS said the release proved Google’s neutrality with respect to processor architectures, noting that the firm was “excited” by the prospect that Android developers could now “quickly and easily develop high-performance games and apps for MIPS-based smartphones, tablets, set-top boxes and DTVs.”

Developers who want to try out the NDK themselves can do so by downloading it on Google's Android Developers website.

Tuesday afternoon, Android Developers Forum announced the latest update to their NDK. Last month at Linley Tech Mobile Conference 2012 the audience heard from Amit Rohatgi, MIPS Mobile Architect, that Google would be adding the MIPS ABI into the Android NDK.

The new features for MIPS Developers using Android NDK, Revision 8 are:

* Added support for the MIPS ABI, which allows [Developers] to generate machine code that runs on compatible MIPS-based Android devices. Major features for MIPS include MIPS-specific toolchains, system headers, libraries and debugging support. For more details regarding MIPS support, see docs/CPU-MIPS.html in the NDK package. * By default, code is generated for ARM-based devices. [Developers] can add mips to your APP_ABI definition in your Application.mk file to build for MIPS platforms. For example, the following line instructs ndk-build to build your code for three distinct ABIs: APP_ABI := armeabi armeabi-v7a mips * Unless [Developers] rely on architecture-specific assembly sources, such as ARM assembly code, you should not need to touch your Android.mk files to build MIPS machine code. * [Developers] can build a standalone MIPS toolchain using the --arch=mips option when calling make-standalone-toolchain.sh. See docs/STANDALONE-TOOLCHAIN.html for more details. * The Android NDK is a toolset that lets developers embed components that make use of native code in Android applications. * Android applications run in the Dalvik virtual machine. The NDK allows you to implement parts of your applications using native-code languages such as C and C++. This can provide benefits to certain classes of applications, such as reuse of existing code and in some cases increased speed.

Android NDK provides:

* A set of tools and build files used to generate native code libraries from C and C++ sources. * A way to embed the corresponding native libraries into an application package file (.apk) that can be deployed on Android devices. * A set of native system headers and libraries that will be supported in all future versions of the Android platform, starting from Android 1.5. Applications that use native activities must be run on Android 2.3 or later. * Documentation, samples, and tutorials.

An MIPS spokesperson was not available for comment at the time we published the above information.

MIPS Technologies HQ

However, the Android announcement represents the clean signal that Google Android is maturing. After Intel made a lot of public statements about the future of Google Android and its x86 platform, this announcement clearly sends a message that Google wants to cover all the contemporary architectures.

Consumer Electronics company Philips is preparing to launch new line of tablets with 7 inch displays and Google Android 4.0 software. While Philips will hardly be the first company to follow that path, one of the interesting things about these new tablets is that at least some models are expected to feature MIPS processors rather than ARM or x86 chips.

The move comes at a time when Google is starting to take notice of MIPS-based products. The maker of the Android operating system plans to build better MIPS support into future versions of the mobile operating system.

In fact, one of the first devices to ship with Android 4.0 software installed was the Ainol Novo 7 tablet with a low power MIPS processor.

We may not see the new Philips tablets in the US right away. The company plans to launch the products first in China. But looking at spec sheets for some of the company’s 2012 tablets it looks like we can expect models with 1024 x 600 pixel or 800 x 480 pixel displays, support for a range of media codecs including MP4, H.264, and WMV, and 4 to 5 hours of battery life.